Monday, March 14, 2005

Bluebell evolution

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are one of the first wildflowers to bloom in this area.

The leaves appear first, then spread open to reveal the buds.



The stalk gets longer, and soon the buds are too heavy to stand up straight.



Bud color goes from pink to purple, then the blue flower opens. When it fades, it will turn pink again.



Every now and then there will be a flower that is pink or white instead of blue. None in this bunch so far.

A stalk with several open flowers.



Among friends.

7 comments:

Rurality said...

Thanks Mary, it's a Sony Mavica CD1000. I love the tiny CDs it uses for film - they're cheap and you can get a lot on them. But there are several things I dislike about the camera too. For example, it's impossible to get a shot of anything moving, because there is such a delay between the time you push the button and when the picture is actually taken.

Rhodent said...

Great pictures, once again. I love blue flowers... there are really not too many that truly blue!

Happy and Blue 2 said...

The flowers are nice. I can hardly wait for flowers blooming here in about 6 friggin months.

Magazine Man said...

This site is SO good for my blood pressure. I'm gonna have to point my wife to it. She is chomping at the bit to start planting!

BTW, I LOVE that you came back to the start of my little adventure to post your comment (how did you know I'd scroll down and check?) I remember the Encyclopedia Brown/Bull Run sword story well. My friend and I cribbed a lot from those books when we set up our detective agency. He just really had his act together. Unlike me...

Rurality said...

Rhodent, it's funny, almost everything else that blooms so early is white. But yeah now that you mention it, not many at all are blue.

H&B2, but you have all that lovely snow to make up for it... :)

MM, you will note that I did NOT post pictures of the lettuce and broccoli we planted yesterday... we paid for our lovely 70 degree weather yesterday with a lovely hail storm at dusk. Actually the broccoli is ok but I'm afraid that soon I'll be having to pray over the lettuce. I am still moving the tomatoes in at night because it's too early to plant them... but they had Sun Golds at the conference so of course I had to buy some.

Blogger sends me an email whenever someone comments... isn't yours set up that way too?

Oh man I can't even type the word anymore without hearing Dana Carvey singing "chopping broccoli" in my head for 3 hours.

Anonymous said...

Flowers? Greenery? Hail? What fantasy land are you living in?

Our day.

Nice photos, thank you for the dreams of Spring.

Rurality said...

In Alabama of course!

That's a serious lot of snow Jerry. Brr. Oh man. BRRRR!